I know their circumstances have changed. And I’d be the first to admit that normal rules of judgement don’t apply within 100 feet of Harry Redknapp. But does it seem at all strange to anyone else that Tottenham aren’t facing more criticism over their reacquisition of Jermain Defoe? They sold him for £7.5 million in 2008, watched him play brilliantly for Portsmouth, then bought him back for £15 million in 2009. That’s not advantageous math.

Granted, they lost Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov, the strikers who kept Defoe from having a starting role at Tottenham, in the interim. But given how well Defoe has played at Portsmouth and how poor Keane especially has looked at his new club, isn’t it kind of apparent that they never should have sold him in the first place? Obviously he improves their squad, so in that sense this is a good move for them today. But as the Daily Bung points out, it doesn’t display what you’d call a really ruthless acumen for business:

I guess Spurs fans, most of whom never wanted to lose Defoe in the first place, are seeing this as a wrong finally mended, and thus aren’t inclined to feel outrage over a calculator. But the fact that the club have overtly bungled yet another episode like this isn’t reassuring, magic of Harry or no. We’ll see what happens when they sell him to Sunderland in August for £200k and the rights to Teemu Tainio.